Agate

ELON, N.C. – The Elon University men’s tennis team suffered its first Southern Conference setback of the season on Sunday, April 7, after dropping a hard-fought 4-3 match to the Georgia Southern Eagles at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
 
Elon (14-6, 7-1 Southern Conference) and Georgia Southern (9-7, 5-3 Southern Conference) battled to a 3-all tie with only Stefan Fortmann and Andrew Dromsky remaining at No. 1 singles. Following a 6-4 loss in the first set, Fortmann, playing for 45th-ranked Cameron Silverman at Elon’s top spot, captured a 7-6 (10-5) win in the second set to force a third and final set. But Dromsky managed to hold off Fortmann in the third, winning 6-2 to give the Eagles the victory.
 
The Phoenix jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after sweeping all three doubles matches. The 34th-ranked tandem of Silverman and Fortmann handed Oliver Webb and Matthijs Verdam an 8-5 loss at No. 1 for their ninth straight win. Brian Kowalski and Robert Lindgren won 8-2 over Dromsky and Rayane Djouad, while Jordan Kaufman and Juan Madrid claimed an 8-2 win at No. 3 against Kyle Hoffman and Alex Doherty.
 
Kaufman was impressive in singles action at No. 3, claiming a quick 6-0, 6-2, win against A. Codina Sala to give Elon a 2-0 lead.
 
Madrid was the next to finish for the maroon and gold, topping Hoffman, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 5 to push the Phoenix out to a 3-0 advantage.
 
But the Eagles came back, winning three hard-fought three-set matches at No. 6, 4 and 2 to tie the match at 3-all.
 
Fortmann nearly staved off the Eagles’ Dromsky at No. 1, but the reigning Southern Conference Player of the Month could not manage a third-set comeback.
 
Elon returns to action on Tuesday, April 9, when it heads to Greensboro, N.C., to face local rival UNCG.